Well, It looks like it will be the end of the growing season this week in St. Louis. We are supposed to get temperatures in the lower 30’s tonight. Oh, well, farewell to summer and the long warm evenings :-(
As a send off to the growing season, I wanted to do a gelato w/ some of the final fresh local corn that I could find at the market. I love spicy stuff, especially peppers, combined w/ sweet goodness, so I tried candying some jalapenos to add to the mix. For some reason, I had limited success w/ candying these little devils! (see cooking notes following the recipe)
Corn Gelato w/ Candied Jalapenos
Ingredients:
4 ears yellow corn
4 jalapenos
1 quart half & half
1 cup sugar (plus 1 cup for candying jalapenos)
6 egg yolks
Procedure:
1) Grill corn and jalapenos (halved w/ seeds and ribs removed) until slightly charred; let cool, then cut corn kernels off cobs and cut jalapenos into 1/4 inch squares
2) Reserve corn kernels in a bowl; spread jalapeno squares evenly on a parchment lined sheet pan
3) Heat mixture of 1 cup sugar and 1/8 cup water in a heavy pot until sugar becomes amber in color, then pour over jalapeno squares; when cool, break jalapeno squares from caramelized sugar and reserve for churning process
4) In a metal bowl, whisk egg yolks and remaining cup of sugar until mixture becomes smooth and pale yellow
5) Place half & half and corn kernels in a heavy pot and heat until scalded
6) Strain corn from half and half then puree in a food processor until smooth (adding a small amount of the half & half to assist in pureeing process); push corn puree through a coarse sieve to get the juice; discard remaining solids
7) Very slowly add warm half & half to egg/sugar mixture so as not to curdle the mixture
8) Place bowl w/ mixture over a pot of simmering water, stirring continuously until mixture coats the back of a metal spoon (do not let mixture exceed 170 degrees F to prevent curdling), then quickly place bowl in an ice bath to stop the cooking process and promote rapid cooling
9) Stir corn juice into cooling mixture
10) Once cool, refrigerate mixture for at least 4 hours or overnight
Yield: Approx. 1 1/2 quarts
Cooking notes:
I’m not sure why, but the caramelized sugar didn’t harden around the jalapeno squares. The surrounding sugar hardened, however, the area directly touching the jalapenos remained syrupy! Maybe there’s a compound in the jalapenos that interacts w/ the sugar which prevents the sugar from hardening. I consulted my Harold McGee food science book, “On Food and Cooking,” to see if he had an explanation for this phenomenon. Surprisingly, I found nothing in his book! I will continue w/ my quest to find the answer when I get back home later this week. Honestly, I thought you could candy (or maybe the correct term is caramelize) pretty much anything. Really… I mean I’ve candied many things, even my fingers (by mistake of course, but it was such a sweet pain!!). I will try doing the jalapenos again after doing more research, and post the results (good or bad).
I took this gelato to some friends’ house to have for dessert after a spicy meal. The taste testers consensus was… everyone gave it a big thumbs up despite it being a weird flavor for gelato. It turned out to be the perfect ending to our meal of lamb stew w/ harissa and Israeli couscous!
Happy Halloween everyone…
